Albert Sanford started collecting art when he was 16 years old. And it’s his passion for the act of collecting art that has carried him to where he stands in the business today.
Today, Sanford celebrates 25 years of owning his Galerie Maximillian in Aspen. Opened in June 1997 in the space at 602 E. Cooper Ave., the art gallery has stood for a quarter century.
One of the longest running galleries in Aspen (if not the longest running gallery in town), Galerie Maximillian is here to stay, Sanford said.
“I’m really proud that we have been here 25 years, and we’re not going anywhere — we just resigned our lease; we’re full steam ahead,” Sanford said. “At a time when people are questioning: What is Aspen, what are the things that are still there… I think it is an accomplishment.”
In light of its 25th anniversary year, Galerie Maximillian is showcasing works by some of the most reputable artists of the 20th and 21st century, Sanford said — including new acquisitions by Andy Warhol, Peter Doig, Damien Hirst, Ian Davenport and David Hockney and historic master prints by Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró and Henri Matisse.
Works by these artists, among a handful of other iconic names, are currently on view and for sale at the gallery. On Tuesday from 5:30 p.m. to 8, Galerie Maximillian is hosting a holiday reception to celebrate its anniversary and for community members to browse this notable exhibition that just recently went up and will run through the winter season.
Then in mid-February, the gallery will also present an exhibition, titled “Diverse Voices,” featuring original works of contemporary artists Leonardo Drew, Nina Chanel Abney, Derrick Adams, Jeffery Gibson, Rashid Johnson, Toba Khedoori, Julie Mehretu and Yinka Shonibare. The “Diverse Voices” show will be up through April.
Sanford expressed how he’s proud to be presenting works by such a dynamic group of luminary artists for the gallery’s anniversary year. He noted how 25 years ago, when Galerie Maximillian was born, the French historic art inventory on the walls looked quite different from the iconic contemporary pieces seen in the gallery today.
Yet, an experienced collector himself, Sanford was well versed in the business of selling art from the start, and throughout his years as a gallery owner, he’s also known how to navigate the evolution of a resort ski town and the evolution of the art world at-large. And Sanford traces his success back to his original passion.
“I’ve always maintained that in order to be successful as an art dealer, you have to have passion — you have to be passionate,” he said. “First and foremost, I am a collector of art; secondly, I am an art dealer, and I would never sell something that I would not put in my own home or my own collection.”
In the beginning
Sanford and his wife at the time, Dorothy Wildman, decided to move to Aspen from Chicago in ’97 and together, they would open an art gallery.
Wildman had a home in Aspen and throughout the ’90s, she and Sanford would visit the mountain town frequently. On these trips, Sanford said he noticed how year after year the restaurants and other businesses seemed to come and go, but the art galleries — the art galleries seemed to stay put.
“My intuition was: A, this was a market to move into,” Sanford said. “And B, it was a place I wanted to live, it was a place Dorothy wanted to live — we had friends here and we felt it was a place to make friends.”
Sanford was formerly an art dealer in Chicago, working for a chain of galleries of which was owned then by the Pritzker family. He’d been with the company for 14 years, he said, and was the president and CEO when he decided to leave his big-city corporate life behind to pursue becoming an independent business owner in Aspen, Colorado.
“To be honest with you, when I came here, I knew what I was doing,” Sanford said. “People didn’t really realize that — people knew who my wife was, nobody knew who I was.”
But Sandford knew himself, and despite doubtful comments from realtors in town and the way in which Aspen foot traffic tended to follow a “Z pattern” at the time of Sanford’s search for a space, he said, he had a hunch that the odd little building on East Cooper Avenue would be a really good location to open an art gallery.
The space was formerly a clothing store that didn’t see much foot traffic and didn’t feel vibrant, said Sanford — who was determined to take it over as a tenant and open Galerie Maximillian. And that’s exactly what he did.
“I had a goal, I had a financial plan… And we did our three-year plan in the first year,” the gallery owner said. “And that’s when I knew, I was in an A location, this was a good move and I was doing a good thing.”
Galerie Maximillian — which takes its name after Sanford’s first gallery dog, a Yorkshire Terrier named “Maximillian” — started out selling 19th century French art, for the most part, as well as some contemporary French primitive art, Sanford said.
In 2003, six years into the Aspen gallery’s lifespan, Sanford knew it was time to evolve, and while the collector had a hankering to get into more contemporary art — noting that he started attending the Aspen Art Museum tours around this time — he said the seminal moment of change was two words: Damien Hirst.
“I became intrigued by Damien Hirst and then I had an opportunity to buy some Damien Hirst in London, so that was the beginning and we had immediate success with it,” Sanford said. “It was a complete change of direction for the gallery.”
One contemporary British artist led to the next for Sanford, from Hirst to Grayson Perry, Anish Kapoor, Gary Hume and Marc Quinn — the list goes on.
Over the years, Galerie Maximillian has come to specialize in British contemporary works on paper, showcasing mostly editions and also some unique pieces, Sanford said, with a price range applicable to everyone from the young and newer art collector to the tenured collectors who purchase works surpassing the $75,000 mark.
Galerie Maximillian continues to cultivate a world-class collection of museum-quality fine art today. The Aspen gallery has established an international footprint, having sold pieces to thousands of people over the past 25 years, Sanford noted, and he emphasized the impact that clientele loyalty has had on his gallery’s success.
Sanford also credits Galerie Maximillian’s longevity to his and his former wife’s early-on commitment to support the local community. Since the gallery’s beginning, Sanford and Wildman have been involved “financially and emotionally,” he said, in most of the charitable organizations in town and throughout the valley and especially have supported the arts in Aspen over the years.
In terms of his own gallery, Sanford said he’s always hired employees locally and has maintained a very straightforward relationship with his landlord, Tony Mazza. Sanford also mentioned that the gallery has a magnitude of inventory — carrying “way more art than walls,” he said — and being able to gauge a client’s interest with the showcased examples and then pull more pieces that are tucked away, has worked as a successful business model.
Sanford went on to explain how unlike most art galleries, Galerie Maximillian owns the majority of the art that it sells. He said this tends to surprise people.
“We’ve always had a different model; most galleries are working on a consignment model or they’re maybe partners with artists or have guarantees to sell a certain amount,” Sanford said. “But we’ve always believed that to be successful, you have to have skin in the game, and so our strategy has been to go out into the marketplace as collectors and to buy, as if it was something that was going to go in my own personal collection.”
Ultimately, Galerie Maximillian’s 25-year success is rooted in Sanford’s own passion: “I just like to buy art, you know, I’m really into buying art,” he said.
“And at a certain point, I have to sell that art in order to buy more art,” Sanford continued. “I’m just looking to help people build an art collection.”
